Lake Coroner's race heats up

With only days left before the May 3 primary, the Democratic race for the Lake County Coroner is heating up as the candidates trade barbs about alleged long response times on coroner's calls and a candidate's earlier conviction on failure to pay sales taxes.

Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey is seeking a second term, but one of her challengers in the Democratic primary — former State Sen. Samuel Smith of East Chicago — is claiming that coroner's staff isn't responding to death scenes in a timely manner.

"From my understanding when there is a death whether accident, homicide or suicide, it goes out over the airwaves, so the coroner's office hears about it immediately," said Smith, who owns Divinity Funeral Home in East Chicago. "Yes, you have to wait until the investigation has taken place by local law enforcement, but if you know call is coming in … get on your way."

Frey disputes the claim and insists that all times are logged for each of the approximately 1,000 calls the office receives each year.

"We never turn the lights off at the coroner's office," Frey said. "When we get call from police, the time is immediately logged, then investigators log the time they leave the facility, arrive at the scene, leave the scene, and arrive back at the facility.

"It may take some time to drive to the scene in north county areas like East Chicago and Hammond, but that's simply the time it takes for two vehicles to get to the scene."

A third candidate — Phyllis Perkins of Gary — did not respond to an interview request.

Frey said that she doesn't think Smith is qualified to handle the job of coroner or its budget, since he plead guilty to misdemeanor failure to remit sales tax on his funeral home in 2004. Smith was charged with six felony counts before reaching a plea deal with the Marion County Prosecutor's office: He repaid more than $15,000 in taxes and penalties in exchange for the violation being knocked down to a misdemeanor.

"How is he going to manage coroner's office, when he can't handle his own expenses? It's very concerning," Frey said.

Smith blamed the situation on delays in receiving payments from customers.

"Yes, I was slow in paying it back to the state, but we did pay all that with interest," Smith said. "It's not like people are coming to us with cash in hand."

Frey, who is a nurse, said that she has tried to raise the level of professionalism in her office and she has focused on community education efforts on some of the leading causes of death locally, such as heroin overdoses.

"In the last year, we have had close to 100 overdose deaths in Lake County, and more than half of those have been heroin," Frey said.

Frey has reached out to local pharmacies to make sure Narcan — a medication that helps prevent opioid overdoses — is available over the counter to families and friends of addicts.

"I truly believe that there is not one family not affected by someone having an addiction," Frey said. "Every single minute counts, and with Narcan, the effects can be reversed but that individual still has 60 minutes to get to ER for further treatment."

It looks like the "Trump factor" may be playing a role in early voting in Lake County with local Republicans coming out in greater numbers than usual. Porter County officials, meanwhile, are seeing a number of Democrats voting Republican with only two more days of early voting remaining.

More than...

It looks like the "Trump factor" may be playing a role in early voting in Lake County with local Republicans coming out in greater numbers than usual. Porter County officials, meanwhile, are seeing a number of Democrats voting Republican with only two more days of early voting remaining.

More than...

(Carrie Napoleon and Amy Lavalley)

Smith has been in the funeral business for 32 years, since he bought the funeral home at the age of 26. He recalls being fascinated by a funeral director who lived nearby.

"I attended church with grandma, so I grew up watching those guys and admired them," Smith said.

Smith, who has trained to be a pathology technician, said he wants to improve the level of compassion between families and the coroner's office, citing a current county policy that charges Gift of Hope a $1,000 fee to retrieve cornea and bone tissue from organ donors at the coroner's office.